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Dying teacher: Asbestos in schools will kill pupils
Tim Ross, Education Correspondent16 Apr 2009
CHILDREN'S lives are at risk and an unknown number will die from cancer after being exposed to asbestos in schools, a terminally ill London teacher warned today.
Carole Hagedorn described how her mesothelioma, caused by exposure to asbestos in school buildings, left her feeling “like some sort of collateral damage in the education game”.
She warned that the potentially lethal fibres can be released by pupils simply banging a door or window, or knocking on a classroom wall. Mrs Hagedorn, who taught French and German in secondary schools in Redbridge and Newham, decided to speak publicly to campaign for all asbestos to be removed from school buildings. She said: “It's better than sitting in a corner and crying.”
The cancer takes decades to develop and there are fears that many pupils may be at risk.
“Children are thought to be much more susceptible than adults, though we probably won't know for another 20 or 30 years how many will already have contracted this cancer from exposure in schools,” she said.
Asbestos is present in most schools, often in ceiling tiles, wall boards or insulation. Official policy is that most asbestos is being safely managed.
Mrs Hagedorn, 58, began her teaching career in 1974 but “did not expect to end it with an industrial disease”.
“This cancer is incurable and virtually always inoperable, with a life expectancy from diagnosis of between six and 18 months.
“I am unhappy that the lack of proper asbestos control will end my life prematurely, like some sort of collateral damage or natural wastage in the education game. I have lost my teaching career and my lovely pupils have lost their teacher.”
She said was trying not to think about the pain the illness will cause as it gets worse.
Mrs Hagedorn was speaking at the NASUWT teaching union's annual conference in Bournemouth as delegates discussed a planned campaign for the removal of asbestos from all schools and colleges by 2012.
Between 1991 and 2000 a total of 145 teachers died from asbestos-related diseases and children and staff are still being exposed, according to union delegates.
Health and safety chiefs have advised teachers not to pin children's work or posters to walls containing asbestos to minimise the risk of disturbing fibres.
A Department for Children spokesman said: “The health and welfare of pupils and staff is paramount. All major refurbishments carried out would normally include removal of all asbestos.”
Reader views (3)
The case of Mrs Hagedorn is very sad, but the above report, other media reports of this case and unions' campaigns on this issue show either a shocking ignorance or a wilful disregard of the scientific evidence regarding the risks of asbestos. Numerous epidemiological studies have shown that in the case of chrysotile asbestos (which comprises over 90% of the asbsestos used in construction), even heavy occupational exposure to it (as in the miners and millers of the substance) for long periods produces a very low or nonexistent risk of mesothelioma (see, for example, Yarborough's paper in Critical Reviews in Toxicology, 2006, and Gibb's and Berry's paper in Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, 2008). Numerous other studies have shown that non-occupational exposure to asbestos (e.g. spending lots of time in a building with asbestos materials) produces only a very low risk of asbestos-related disease, so small that it is very difficult to even quantify. Other studies have shown that asbestos removal often leads to much greater asbestos fibre release than leaving asbestos material in place, so to remove asbestos materials unless they are in a dangerous state (i.e. badly damaged and releasing fibres) is extremely foolish.
It is sad that there is so much ignorance on this topic, fuelled by a sensationalistic media, greedy compensation-seeking lawyers and trade unions.
- Dave Smith, Stoke-on-Trent, UK, 03/07/2009 22:50
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Asbestos was also present in the Science laboratory, used in mats for Bunsen burners and some other pieces of apparatus were lined with it. (Autoclaves etc.,) I have read that the blackboard erasers also had asbestos fibres in the material pad and that each swipe across the board released 1,000s of fibres, breathed in by teachers and pupils.
- Simplylyn, Brampton UK, 26/05/2009 22:58
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This is scandalous. All known asbestos should have been removed from school buildings years ago. The children and teachers are in danger and the local authorities will have to pay out substantial damages for their negligence.
- Bloke, London, 26/05/2009 21:58
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